March 18th

hello friends
miss you bunches. today was temple p day! so amazing... we got to go to the temple in Tokyo. Beautiful and lovely experience of course.

And we got to venture into the north mission area. the more you get into tokyo.... the more crowded and busy and crazy it gets! it's amazing how many humans there can be in one place. on one city block. Shoved into one train. after the temple we went to lunch in shibuya with yu chan. we ate at this super cool sushi place. you use a touch screen to order and your food comes right in front of you on this electric lane. so awesome. it's like what you always dream of as a little kid. Just press a button and your food appears.

last p day we went to a little beauty school to get our nails painted in honor of my twenty first birthday! and later that night we got crepes. they are really popular in japan. and they have anything you can imagine on them. not just sweet ones with fruit and whipped topping. I got a pizza sauce crepe but they also have tuna and ham and really anything.

Sister Sasaki and me 

 I am going to start using Facebook pretty soon as a missionary tool. I will be making a new account but I will keep y'all updated on how you can add me and be my friend ! There was another baptism this week... a cute little eight year old girl in our ward, eru chan . the 14th was white day. in japan.... the girls give chocolate to the boys on valentines day and a month later if the boys have interest they give back! Sasaki shimai and I gave back to the sisters in our apartment and president wada gave us gorgeous donuts. it was probably the best donut I've ever eaten.

 
Sister Clark and me with our white day donuts (:

sister Sasaki and I have new goals to visit many of the less actives in our ward and role play our mission lessons with them. so excited! it hasn't been super effective so far, but I think it will end up being a good plan! we had a lesson this week with Oikawa shimai. she has been going to church for years but she isn't ready to accept all the church teachings and be baptized. she has lots of doubt. in the last lesson... she really felt the spirit and she agreed to pray about the decision to receive baptism. it was incredible. lots of members have lost faith in her but she is wonderful and I totally believe in her. we had a lesson with Rika San... she is having a tough time right now because her mother has cancer. we shared the miracle of God's plan of salvation with her and I was able to bear my testimony of prophets, prayer, and the Savior's atonement. She said she has prayed just to greet God but she said she will now start praying with gratitude and also ask for God's help. She is so wonderful. She has tons of potential... she doesn't have desire to read the Book of Mormon because it's hard to understand but I know she is feeling the spirit and God's love for her. my birthday was good... we had two lessons! and we went to the single adult activity with a potential investigator. we went to this cool all you can eat Korean BBQ place. you pick up meats and veggies and cook it yourself at a grill at your table. but they also have everythingggg like curry, rice, ramen, udon, sushi, pizza, fries, salad, fruit, popcorn, cotton candy, ice cream, etc... it was way cool.

  
Sister Sasaki, Ruri, Kaori 

 

 

                                    all you can eat place on bday with ruri shimai and kaori san

haha this whole email is about food.... but I'm not done... haha sister Sasaki taught me how to make harumaki (spring rolls) and giyoza (potstickers) this week.

  

 

I'm becoming japaneseee first blooms of cherry blossoms this week! the weather is starting to get really nice. it's becoming a 'one coat instead of two' kind of weather!

  

 

we had exchanges again this week. on the 14th I worked with sister feist in the morning. we went to the train station for salad and cake for my birthday! and we did lots of streeting. we had 32 meaningful conversations together. and we ran into our potential investigator from last exchange! well... actually I saw her and she was kinda far away. I was like ahhhh it's ishiyama San ! so we sorta walked slash ran after her and casually walked into the ATM booth she was at and were like ohhh my gosh heyyy ishiyama right? she wants to meet up with us to study and learn about Jesus! perfect.

Date with Sister Feist for my birthday

we did another exchange in the afternoon and I worked with sister Clark. she taught me how to do my first kubarikai which is where you stand on the street and pass out eikaiwa fliers. we had more meaningful conversations through that finding activity but it was soooo cold and windy. we were in mitaka and wanted to find a place to eat but we sent these two British guys to the only place we knew in that area... and we thought it would be weird if we showed up. then this man who is passing out coupons for a restaurant basically has us follow him and he seats us in the restaurant and brings us this little plate of bacon and a piece of paper... that is apparently the menu but it was all in kanji and had no pictures. we asked him what he liked and he ordered for us. it was a way typical Japanese restaurant... pretty classy place where you order tons of little things and end up spending tons of money. and they have other areas of the restaurant where you cook your own food. so we ate our mystery things that he ordered for us but we knew how much they would cost cause we can read the kanji for numbers. but... apparently the bacon was eight bucks! I did not feel like we ate twenty bucks worth of food... lesson learned... don't follow a random man into his restaurant.

 
Sister Clark and me with our mystery meatloaf!

Haha anyway that's enough for now! love y'all. miss youuu. I think about and pray for y'all often. thanks for your love and support and prayers. you da best

 Me studying and stuck in the futon

Sister Sasaki, Sister Wells, Sister Feist, Elder Crandall, Elder Bradshaw, Elder Call, Elder Konishi, Elder Fernelious, Elder Fukuchi, Elder Nakayama, Elder Yagui

 My district